At IFA 2024 in Berlin, Lenovo presented its first laptops powered by Qualcomm's affordable ARM processor, the Snapdragon X Plus. A total of three models were shown: IdeaPad Slim 5x, IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1, and ThinkBook 16 Gen 7. Let's take a closer look at them.
IdeaPad Slim 5x
The 14-inch Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5x laptop has a traditionally minimalist design for this series with an aluminum body and only a small company logo on the lid.
The laptop is easy to open with one hand and opens almost 180 degrees.
The model's keyboard is typical of the IdeaPad line, with a soft, fairly quiet keystroke and enough space between keys to type comfortably. And since the IdeaPad Slim 5x is a Copilot+ PC, its keyboard has a separate key to launch the Copilot chatbot. Interestingly, the laptop will be sold in both backlit and non-backlit versions.
The touchpad is quite large and recognizes finger positions well, supporting Windows 11 gestures.
IdeaPad Slim 5x has two 2W speakers located on each side of the keyboard.
The laptop's ports are located on the sides, with a microSD card slot and two USB-As on the right.
On the left side, you can find two USB-C, HDMI 2.1, and a 3.5 mm headphone or headset jack.
The laptop measures 312 x 221 x 16.9 mm and weighs 1.48 kg.
The bezels around the screen in the IdeaPad Slim 5x are not very large and are made of plastic. Above the display is a Full HD camera with a privacy curtain and support for Windows Hello face recognition.
The laptop's 14-inch OLED display has a resolution of 1920x1200 pixels, a refresh rate of 60 Hz, a maximum brightness of 400 nits, 100% DCI-P3 color space coverage, and TUV Low Blue Light certification. In general, this is a fairly high-quality matrix with good viewing angles, vivid color reproduction, and a matte finish.
The IdeaPad Slim 5x is one of Lenovo's first laptops to feature Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Plus platform, which delivers slightly lower performance than the top-of-the-line X Elite line due to the use of processors with fewer cores. Slim 5x will be available with both 8-core and 10-core Snapdragon X Plus processors. All of them also have built-in Adreno graphics, a coprocessor for faster processing of AI tasks Hexagon, modern wireless modules Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.3.
The laptop can also be configured with up to 32 GB of LPDDR5X RAM and up to 1 TB of SSD storage.
The IdeaPad Slim 5x has a 57 Wh battery, which is not very large for a 14-inch model, but given the energy-efficient platform, it should be enough for more than 10 hours of autonomy.
Sales of the model in Europe will begin in September, and its price will start at 899 euros.
IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1
This is actually the twin model of the IdeaPad Slim 5x, which differs in design and configuration. I'll focus only on the differences. As the name suggests, the IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1 is a transforming laptop whose screen can open 360 degrees thanks to a special hinge.
In addition to the design, the model also has a touchscreen OLED display, which together affected the size and weight, they are slightly larger here: 313 x 227 x 17.5 mm and 1.5 kg.
Instead of a face recognition system, the IdeaPad Slim 5x uses a fingerprint scanner.
Despite using the same platform as the Snapdragon X Plus, the model will be offered with a lower maximum amount of RAM - up to 16 GB of LPDDR5X.
Otherwise, the laptop is identical to the Slim 5x, but has a higher starting price of 999 euros.
ThinkBook 16 Gen 7
The ThinkBook line of basic business laptops also received its first Snapdragon X Plus model, the ThinkBook 16 Gen 7. The laptop has a classic design for the series with a display lid that is visually divided into two parts in a darker color and has a large ThinkBook logo. The body of the model is entirely metal, and it will be available in only one dark gray color, Luna Gray.
For a 16-inch laptop, the ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 has not very large dimensions of 356.4 x 248.4 x 16.7 mm and weighs 1.82 kg.
The model has a backlit island keyboard with a numeric pad and a rather large touchpad.
The 16-inch IPS display of the ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 has a WQXGA resolution (2560x1600 dots), 16:10 aspect ratio, supports 100% of the sRGB color space, and has a peak brightness of 350 nits. Despite the good viewing angles, this model still loses out to OLED screens in terms of color reproduction, and we would like to see higher brightness. Therefore, it's a good display for office tasks, but not for photo editing or other color work.
The laptop's sound system consists of two super-linear speakers with Dolby Atmos support; they are quite loud, but not very voluminous. Two microphones located in the case can be used during video conferences.
The ports in the laptop are located on the sides of the laptop. On the right side are two USB-A (one with Always-On support) and an SD card reader. On the left side are two USB-C with 10 Gbps support, HDMI 2.1, and an audio jack.
This model is also based on the Snapdragon X Plus processor and can be equipped with up to 32 GB of LPDDR5X RAM and up to 1 TB of SSD storage.
ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 has a built-in 84 Wh battery, which should be enough for a good level of autonomy.
This model will go on sale in Europe in October and will start at 819 euros.